Dead man switches have been in use for many years. They were originally associated with industrial and commercial equipment and processes to avoid injury or loss of life should the operator loose control of the equipment for any reason. Their use has grown widely over the past 35 years due to increased government regulation and oversight by organizations such as OSHA, consumer protection organizations like those formed by Ralph Nader, Labor Organizations and Insurance Companies to name a few. In addition, with the growing litigation related to consumer product induced injuries, safety and safe guards have become commonplace in most products. In the area of recreational vehicles and watercraft such devices have become commonplace. Many jet ski's, snow mobiles, all terrain vehicles and even fishing boats come equipped with dead man switch devices to ensure that the craft or vehicle will either stop or assume an idle state should the switch be engaged. These dead man devices or mechanisms come in many forms. Some are spring loaded throttles, which assume an idle state if not being held in place by the hand or foot of the operator. Others are switch mechanisms, which have a tether or cord associated with them that are attached to the operator. If the operator should fall off or be thrown from the normal operators station, the tether would cause the switch to be activated thus interrupting the ignition of the craft or vehicle causing it to stop.
All of these safety devices perform well and have avoided needless injuries and deaths. They are however sometimes misused and therefore cannot perform their proposed function. A tethered dead man ignition interrupter on a high-powered speedboat can only perform its intended function if the operator attaches it to their person. Many times however, such devices cause undue restriction of movement or just simply become a nuisance to deal with and are unintentionally ignored thus allowing the operator to put themselves and others in potential danger. The proposed invention is designed to overcome the inconveniences associated with many dead man-switching devices while providing the same or better safety and protection features of it predecessors.